26 December 2008
The options for this Chirstmas vacation were limited. Though I and my wife wanted to go for a long trip and far off place in India, it would put lot of strain on my one year old daughter. The travel plan cannot be tightly scheduled with kids on board. Kids need a lot of break so that they are happy during travel. The conducted tours were hence not ruled out. It has to be a self drive where we are ourselves without disturbing others or getting disturbed by others. My friend Sankara suggested going together with our families to Ooty and we happily agreed. I had been to Ooty couple of times earlier. There is nothing great in Ooty town but once out of the town and enter into Nilgiris, it is another world. Ooty will be very cold during December and we made necessary arrangements for my daughter to feel herself comfortable.
One of the happening places in Ooty is the lake. But it has lost its original beauty long ago. These days it is the Pykara Lake that is attracting lot of tourists.
Pykara Lake is 25 kms from Ooty on Ooty-Gudalur road. Since this is the main road towards Karnataka, lots of people visit this place.
We decided to visit it on the day we landed in Ooty. The drive through the curvy roads was fun. On the way, we saw lot of vehicles parked on the road side. We got to know that it was for Pykara falls and we decided to go for it. It was half km walk. It is not strictly a falls but series of cascade that make a nice spectacle to watch.
Pykara Lake is 2 km drive from the falls. The blue colored water of the lake was encouraging. Since the lake is huge and surrounded by forests, it is really a great place to be in. Lot of boat riding options is available here. We took a motorboat ride which took us deep into the lake and provided with some stunning views. When we went for boating, one of the car windows was opened and monkeys stole all the food items that were inside the car!! Since they were monkeys they did not care about the other valuables!!!!
Looking at the huge number of people who visit the lake, it is doubtful whether the Lake retains its serenity. Only time can tell that.
More pictures of Ooty trip can be seen here. Labels: lake, nilgiris, Tamilnadu, travel